Napa Blood Center Floods

January 3, 2006

Blood Donors Urged to Give at Nearby Locations

Blood Centers of the Pacific’s Napa Blood Center, located on Soscol Avenue flooded over the holiday weekend, shrinking already low blood supplies for the region. The Napa Center took on more than a foot of water, leaving the Bay Area without an important resource for blood donation.

Blood center staff is reporting that the damage is extensive. Vital equipment and furniture was damaged or destroyed and communications and computer systems are down. Most important, however, is the loss of the blood donations that center sees. Residents come to the Napa Center to donate whole blood and also platelets, which are a precious blood component often used to treat cancer patients. The situation was further compounded when flooding closed major area highways, preventing staff and donors from reaching other collections centers in the North Bay.

The flooding comes at a bad time, as blood supplies throughout the area are already low and hospital needs are exceeding expectations.

Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP) is urging all Napa blood donors to consider donating at its two nearest locations – Fairfield and Vallejo.

“We’re doing all we can right now to clean up the center but we don’t know yet when we’ll be able to reopen it,” said BCP’s North Bay Region Director, Lana Dyson. “We hope residents will consider coming to our other blood centers, as our region’s patients are relying on their generosity.”

To donate blood, call 888-393-GIVE or visit bloodcenters.org.

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